


nothing remains

by Kaschra



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age II
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Angst, Emotional Hurt, Gen, Hurt, Implied/Referenced Character Death, References to Depression
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-25
Updated: 2019-08-25
Packaged: 2020-03-14 16:37:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18951898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaschra/pseuds/Kaschra
Summary: Set afterAll That RemainsHawke has a hard time dealing with the loss she suffered.





	1. Chapter 1

She took a sip. And another. And another.  
Anything to drown her feelings, to leave her numb enough that she didn't have to deal with the emptiness that had spread through her heart, holding her tight in its grasp.  
The alcohol had lost its taste a long time ago.  
She didn't care.

These days, Hawke was an all too common sight in the shadiest, dirtiest pubs of Lowtown.  
The only place she avoided like the plague was the Hanged Man. She wanted to be alone – and there was no way the Champion of Kirkwall would be left alone in a place like that, with so many familiar faces around.

Familiar faces trying to talk to her – trying to comfort her.  
No. She was not in the mood to talk with anyone. She never was these days.

Hawke groaned, clutching her throbbing head. She felt another wave of dizziness overcome her, washing away all her emotions and leaving behind only the empty husk of a once proud and fierce woman.  
Good, she thought. The alcohol still hadn't lost its impact on her. She welcomed this absence of feelings with open arms.

Hawke heard the crowd of people around her whisper. It was no doubt the latest gossip about her, the perpetually drunk Champion of Kirkwall, who, for all her wits, couldn't even save her own mother from being brutally murdered.

What a failure she was, the whispers seemed to say.  
What a disgrace. 

Not that she cared, really.  
These days, nothing really mattered to her any more. Every minute and hour and day blurred together into a meaningless grey haze.


	2. Chapter 2

He finds her hunched over her dirty table, the mass of empty beer bottles strewn all around her. 

What are you doing to yourself, girl? He thinks, letting out a tired sigh.

He could understand how she felt all too well – he misses his sister Leandra too, more than anything, and he too has gone through this whole drowning your sadness in alcohol business. He knows it doesn't help at all.  
That's why he feels anger rise up in the pit of his stomach whenever he sees his niece like that; Whenever he sees how she practically had given up on herself.

Leandra would never let this slide, were she still alive. She would never allow her daughter to become such a broken shell of her former self.  
But Leandra was not alive. Leandra was gone.

“Let's get you back home,” Gamlen murmurs, before he grabs his niece under her shoulder and lifts her up as carefully as possible.  
Hawke barely reacts at all, only groans faintly.  
She is too tired and too exhausted to keep standing on her own legs without assistance, not to mention to walk.

More stumbling than walking, the two of them make their way back to the Hawke Mansion eventually.  
He carries her the last few feet to her bed, gasping and huffing in exhaustion. He's not getting any younger, he thinks begrudgingly.

*** 

Hawke wakes a few hours later, to the smell of coffee and bread. She sits upright, or at least tries to, because the world around her starts to spin immediately. She falls back onto her pillow. 

Gamlen stands close by and watches his niece's awkward attempts at getting up. He knows it all too well. He's been in her situation more times than he can count. It's exactly why he can't stand it to see her like this. It's why he has made up his mind.  
Leandra may be gone now.  
But he is still here.  
And he has no intention of standing by and watching his niece destroy her life.


End file.
